Colorado Springs News, Sports & Business

Klee: The Book of Colquitt? Better believe it

DENVER - "The Book of Manning." Have you seen it?
The documentary of Archie, Olivia and the Manning boys aired Tuesday. It is award-winningly good, a living-room view of football's first family. Two thumbs-up.
Here, ESPN, is another idea: the Book of Colquitt.
"They wouldn't make it a...

Editor's note: The "Broncos Roots" series takes you off the field and into the lives of the Broncos. Denver columnist Paul Klee will profile one individual every Thursday until the Broncos' bye in Week 8.

+ captionFILE - In this Nov. 25, 2012 file photo, Kansas City Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt (2) and his brother, Denver Broncos punter Britton Colquitt (4) talk after playing each other in an NFL football game, in Kansas City, Mo. The Colquitts are to punting what the Mannings are to passing, and this first family of punters had an inauspicious start, a safety on the patriarch's very first punt at the University of Tennessee in 1975. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

DENVER — "The Book of Manning:" Have you seen it?

The documentary on Archie, Olivia and the Manning boys aired Tuesday. It is award-winningly good, a living-room view of football's first family. Two thumbs up.

Here, ESPN, is another idea: the Book of Colquitt.

"They wouldn't make it a national documentary," Broncos punter Britton Colquitt said with a laugh when I pitched the idea Wednesday.

"They might give us our own copy. That's it."

As the sports world grabbed a front-row seat for the scratchy home movies of Peyton and Eli playing catch in the backyard, another family with football ties jumped to mind.

Britton is the younger brother. He punts for the Broncos.

Dustin is the older brother. He punts for the Chiefs.

Dad is Craig. He won two Super Bowls punting for the Steelers.

This isn't football's first family.

But it might be football's smartest family.

"My son is 1 1/2. He's kicking already," Britton said of Nash, who recently visited dad's office at Dove Valley. "I'll hold the ball out and he'll kick it. He's figured it out."

Britton wasn't a math major at the University of Tennessee - yes, all three Colquitts played in SEC country - but both of us can crunch these numbers:

The odds of a father-son-son trio punting footballs in the NFL are even smaller than a father-son-son trio throwing footballs in the NFL.

"Dustin and I were talking about that, actually," Britton said. "We're one of 32 people at our position in the entire world."

Hey, ESPN. Fire up the cameras. Someone call Tom Rinaldi.

"When I was watching (The Book of Manning), I could relate to it," Britton said. "Not just because of the family thing, but because Archie didn't push the two boys to play quarterback. That was our dad. We couldn't play football till high school. And I grew up watching our videos, too. Our parents filmed everything."

Father, son and son punted at Tennessee. Ole Miss wasn't a consideration.

"The first games I went to at Neyland Stadium were when Peyton was playing for Tennessee. I was 10 or 11," Britton said. "He was the hero."

The beauty of Britton Colquitt's career is not simply that he's a punter in the NFL.

It's that he's a punter in the NFL, kicking at altitude, with an offense that has Peyton Manning at quarterback.

Punting for Peyton is like the dishwasher at a finger-food restaurant, the cab driver in a ghost town, the weatherman in Palm Springs.

"Very few people can say they have their dream job. I'm fortunate to say that."

Only seven teams have punted fewer times than the Broncos, and Britton has pinned eight of his 13 punts inside the 20. Dustin and the Chiefs have punted twice as often.

With each punt, Britton has a pair of goals, at least: hang time of 5.0 seconds and downed inside the 10-yard line. His only punt of the first half on "Monday Night Football" had a hang time of 4.9 seconds and was fair caught at the 9.

"The other night against the Raiders, it was really windy warming up," Britton said. "I texted Dustin because it's usually windy in Kansas City. He gave me some advice."

He could've texted Dad, too.

"Our dad does point out they didn't have (big contracts for punters) like we do now," Britton said. "He's joking, though. He's so happy for us."